Just about five miles north of Sylvania in Screven County, Georgia is Jacksonboro. You can travel past it now on highway 301 and never even know it, but once it thrived and was even the seat of Screven County.

Jacksonboro was established as the county seat in 1797, and was officially incorporated as “The Town of Jacksonborough” February 16, 1799. It was named for then governor General James Jackson and thrived as the main business center for Screven County for 50 years. If you ask exactly why the county seat was moved from Jacksonboro you may hear many explanations, but if you ask anyone from Screven County you’ll get only one story, and it begins with Lorenzo Dow.

In the year 1847 Lorenzo Dow was a traveling evangelist. Like many traveling preachers of that day, Lorenzo Dow often counted on the hospitality of those in the towns he ministered to. When he walked the dusty road into Jacksonborough he expected the fine Southern hospitality he had seen before in such quaint little towns. Instead he found only hostility from everyone there. Everyone, that is, except Seaborn Goodall.

Seaborn was a respected member of the community, and when he saw the well-meaning stranger treated so badly by his neighbors he quickly made an introduction and invited Lorenzo to stay in his home as his guest while in town. Lorenzo was grateful for the offer. His journey had been long and he needed a meal and some rest. Plus, he now saw some hope in ministering to this town. After all, if this man could be so kind there must be others here like him.

He was pleased that his first sermon drew a healthy crowd. Only when he began to speak did he realize that few came to hear preaching. What started as slight heckling grew into a roar of harsh words and laughing. The majority of the men were clearly drunk and Lorenzo soon feared that the crowd may get out of hand. It wasn't long before the shouts ordered him out of the town. He readily obliged. As he crossed the bridge out of town with the mob behind him, he turned and spoke the last words he would ever speak to the people of Jacksonboro. He shook the dust of the town from his feet and spoke a curse on the town that no business would prosper, that no home would stand in that town forever, except the home of the one kind soul he found in Seaborn Goodall.

The words he spoke were laughed off by the people, but not for long. Mysterious fires began to spring up around the homes and businesses of the town. Stores that once prospered could no longer make ends come together. Local merchants were forced to close shop, and since homes were beginning to literally fall to the ground most people were forced to move. There were floods from the usually quiet creek that tore down foundations, mysterious winds that blew so strong as to rip the roofs from the buildings. At the end of it all, every single building in the town was gone. Even the ones which were rebuilt had quickly fallen again. There was nothing left except the bridge, the road, and the home of Seaborn Goodall. Through it all, his home stood solid, always unburned by the fires, undamaged by the storms and floods. In recent years businesses have attempted to set up shop within the borders of Jacksonboro. Each has failed.

Some years later during the War Between the States Jacksonboro was an overnight campsite for the left wing of Sherman’s army. Sherman himself camped with the main column which went through Rocky Ford to Oliver, while his right wing went through Bulloch County. The left wing was commanded by Jeff Davis (a different one) and escorted by Kilpatrick's (Kilcavalry) cavalry. Wheeler's cavalry harassed them on occasion and somewhere between Jacksonborough and the area around Blue Springs Church a skirmish took place between the two cavalry units. An officer from Tenn. was severely wounded and Wheeler's men left him at the Eneck's family home on Pryor road beyond Blue Springs church--a dirt road now but was main road to Savannah at the time. They nursed him for a couple of weeks but he died of his wounds and is buried in the Eneck family cemetery on that road. The whole story is engraved on his tombstone. Sherman's unit continued on through Effingham County to Savannah.